Trail Talk With Austin Duckworth
9/7/2011 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field, Cross Country
Sept. 7, 2011
The University of Alabama men's and women's cross country teams opened up the 2011 season with a pair of top-three finishes at the Georgia Invitational last Saturday as senior Austin Duckworth had one of his strongest races to date. Duckworth finished 21st with an 8-kilometer personal best of 26:14.10. Austin recently took a few minutes to discuss last weekend's race, the reasons for his strong early season showing and answer a few questions his training and preparation.
What were your thoughts going into the first race of the season at the Georgia Invitational?
First off, Coach Waters said to use this race as a tempo run since we're so early in the season and haven't done many workouts yet. This was my second workout of the year, and coach wanted us to come out and see where we were fitness wise. I came out with a three second personal record. I thought the clock was wrong once I passed the finish line. It was exciting, but I've got to keep pushing forward and get better.
What is that like to have a benchmark like that from your first race of the season?
Hopefully, it's a sign of good things to come. With a bit of luck, we can get other guys to come forward and build a stronger team.
What in your training led to the solid first outing?
Consistency. Running seven 80 miles per week in a row and being strong enough. In previous years, I've always had good weeks followed by bad weeks. Coach has really helped me out in finding that consistency.
What have the coaches done to build up your fitness and help with your times?
I've had injury issues every year since I've been here and what I think they've been doing with us has kept me injury free and will maintain my shape.
What about Coach Waters' style appeals to you?
There's a definite pattern and structure to the way Coach Waters runs things. If you're training without that structure it's easy to have those slips where maybe you run out of time and don't run as long as you should and you lose 13-14 miles a week. Then you're not as strong and efficient as you should be. Also, he's trying to train us to make us an all-around better athlete and train other muscle groups besides just running to make us more fit.
What has the team been doing to train outside of running?
We do workouts two times a week on Mondays and Thursdays. We do strength circuits such and a lot of ab workouts. Plus warm-ups where we focus on strength. For me, I've had a lot of patellar tendonitis problems, so doing strength work to make sure you don't have that problem is good.
What is your favorite running workout?
I'm a steeplechaser on the track so I like alternating hurdles. That's 500 meters of flat followed by 500 meters of hurdles. The workout changes every rep so you have to maintain your focus. You can't space out, if you're going to clear a hurdle, you have to be focused. I usually do 12 reps in total.
What is your least favorite workout?
I don't enjoy temp runs. Tempo runs with a group are fine but tempo runs alone are not fun and some of the most miserable experiences of my life. You can sometimes drift off and not maintain that focus and start going slow.
What is one thing you wish you could improve overnight about your running?
My form and running efficiency. If I could keep my shoulders down, that's one thing that would make me faster.
Who do you model your running style after?
It's an amalgamation of sorts. If I had to say, the two most would be Dathan Ritzenhein and Ryan Hall. Those are the two most recent athletes that people would know today. Ryan Hall uses a lot of faith and is very outspoken about it and Ritzenhein is just an animal.
What goes through your mind before a race?
I start thinking of all the work I've done to get to that point and knowing this is what your worked for, to compete. It also starts to go back to listening to your coaches and executing the strategy they've told you to use.
Where is your favorite place to train?
I just enjoy running around Tuscaloosa. There are a lot of different loops and probably three to four good dirt roads that you can run on. Sometimes they're hard to train on but they make you better.
Where is your favorite cross country course?
It would have to Georgia's because that's the one I got my PR on. So for now, that's my favorite. The next one I PR on will be my favorite then.
